The present invention generally relates to a device for adjusting the waist size of pants. The invention is specifically directed to a device adapted for easy attachment to and removal from a pants or skirt waist and further adapted for quick adjustment of the waist size, thus, allowing otherwise loose pants to be fittingly worn without the supportive aid of a waist belt or suspenders.
The prior art is replete with various embodiments of belts and buckles which are used in combination to adjust the waist size of pants. Typically, a buckle is fixedly attached to an end of a belt and is adapted to engage the belt at various positions, often by way of a buckle prong being fitted within any of a plurality of apertures residing along the length of the belt. In order to don a buckled belt, the pant-wearing user guides the free end of the belt through the loops along the pant waistline until the belt completely encircles his waist and the buckle is vertically aligned with his navel. While maintaining the buckle's alignment, the user further draws the free end of the belt around his waist until the coiling belt constricts his pant waist adequately to prevent the pants from sliding downward during wear. The user then secures the buckle to the belt. Generally, the variability of buckle engagement points along a belt allow it to be effectively worn by users of a range of different waist sizes.
Belts can present some disadvantages, however. For instance, while most belts can fit multiple waist sizes, few can accommodate every conceivable waist size. A belt sized to fit around the waist of a large-girthed man is likely too long to be effectively worn by a much slimmer person. Accordingly, belts, like pants themselves, are usually manufactured and sold in standardized sizes that indicate length and are not universally wearable. Furthermore, because of color, finish, texture or other stylistic matters unrelated to proper fit, a user may find a particular belt compatible for use with only a limited portion of his clothing wardrobe.
The prior art also includes several other types of devices for adjusting the waist dimensions of lower body garments that are not designed to encircle the waist area in belt-like fashion. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,249 to Ito discloses an apparatus comprised of a horizontally oriented guide tape and a slider component, both attachable to a pant waist, wherein the slider is slidably movable along and selectively engageable to the guide tape to allow for waist size adjustment by virtue of selective overlapping of portions of the pant waist. U.S. Pat. No. 6,425,139 to Ida discloses a conceptually similar device which comprises a short adjusting belt and a slider component. Both of these patented devices allow a person to adjust his pants waist size without the use of a more sizeable buckled belt.
However, such compact waist-adjusting devices of the prior art are not without disadvantage. To wit, they generally must be (semi-)permanently affixed to a particular garment, making them inconvenient or even impossible to utilize with multiple garments. So, a person may need to possess a different prior art waist-adjusting article to use with each pair of loose-fitting pants that he wishes to apply the article to.
Consequently, it can be appreciated that there exists a need for a waist size-adjusting device that is easily compactable and is removable from clothing such that a single device can be transferred onto virtually every item in a user's pant wardrobe. Furthermore, there exists a need for such a device to be inconspicuous and/or aesthetic so as to render it fashionable for wear with a wide variety of pants. The waist size-adjusting device of the present invention may substantially fulfill these needs.